Transcript of AE 1396 - Interview: What are We Doing for Christmas 2025 with Noah Smissen

G'day you mob, how's it going? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English.

So today we are back again and I am interviewing my son for a third time on the podcast. He just couldn't get enough. He just kept saying, can we do more? Can we do more? So today I thought we would talk about Christmas. What he thinks of Christmas. You know why he's excited about it. What we're going to do for Christmas. We would have a chat about that. So. Yeah. And if you haven't checked out the other two episodes, go back and have a listen.

In the first one, we had a conversation a few months ago. Just a silly conversation for the first time, introducing you guys to him and allowing you to hear some young Australians talking with their accent and their pronunciation, their vocabulary.

And the second one, more recently, we had a chat about his first year in primary school in Prep. So yeah, go check those out.

Before we get into it, don't forget, if you want the transcript for this episode, if you want to get access to bonus episodes, if you want to get access to all the other transcripts for the previous 1300 plus episodes on this podcast, the premium podcast player, everything like that, sign up for the premium podcast membership at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast

You'll be supporting what I do, and you'll be able to more easily use these episodes to study and learn with the transcripts and everything like that. So again, go check that out. AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. The link will be in the description. And without any further ado, let's get into the episode.

How are you, buddy?

Good.

So you wanted to do another episode? Is there anything you want to talk about in particular on this episode?

Well, can you give me some ideas?

We could talk about your family. We could talk about Christmas.

Well, I know! We could talk about the things that you and me like.

Okay. Do you want to interview me?

No, I'm not going to interview you.

Just means you ask questions.

I don't know what you like.

What? Ask me! Look around the room, Noah. What do you see in this room?

Guitars.

That's a good guess. There's within view. Guys, you can't see anything. But there's six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. There's 11 guitars.

Wait, let me see.

There's 11.

Four. Five. Six. Seven. Yeah.

So it's a good guess. Noah. What else would you ask?

Um.

About guitars. This is where you interview someone, you got to think, okay, what do I want to ask? What can they talk about? What is their speciality? What are they interested in? What can they share? What kind of information do they know? And then you ask them something about it. And then you try and ask why, you know. Tell me more. You can ask whatever you want.

Why do you like the guitars are looking old?

So I've got a bunch of guitars that are beaten up. They're very old looking because they there's a certain style with guitars you can get really fancy new ones that are pristine looking, beautiful. But then there are some that are either they are actually old and they get dings in them. You know, you use the guitar, you go to a gig, you play it out live, you hit it on things accidentally, it gets marks. And then there are ones where people pretend they've sort of made it, made the marks on the guitar when they sell it. And I like the look.

Like that one. That one.

Yeah. Exactly that. The one in the middle there is. I didn't do it. That was the guitar company that did it. The one next to it is actually old, and those marks aren't fake. That happened from age. So it's older than me. It's from 1974.

Yeah. Um..

But yes, it's just a different style. I just like things looking beat up.

Remember the first guitar that you had? This one right here?

Yep, yep.

The grey.

I got that.

The grey one.

Was probably only nine years older than you.

Yeah. And remember I said that I wanted it when I.

Have that when you want to play guitar.

Well, I've got, I've got a tiny one in my bedroom that's light blue like this one.

You do.

Just doesn't have red on it.

Yeah, that's all good. But yeah, I just I just like that look of guitars feeling old, worn in I don't know, I like it. What would you get if you were going to play guitar. Would you get the ones that are old and beaten up looking, even if they play and sound nice? Or do you want grand?

Like I'll get something like that with a these little things, the knobs.

You like the gold knobs on it.

Yeah, they like grizzly like that. Yeah.

What else? What else do you want to know about guitars? Any other questions?

Why does this one look like it has scratches on it?

So good question. The guitars are often covered in something called polyurethane, which is like the clear covering over them to protect them. But there are some that use an older type of covering called nitrocellulose lacquer. It's a type of clear covering that goes over the top of guitars and cars a long time ago, when the wood in the guitar contracts or expands because of temperature or moisture, it can crack it. It can cause it to crack. So that's why you can sometimes in these older guitars, get lines that look like cracks.

Um, so I've got this famous car Lego. It's not a normal Lego that you buy in a box.

It's a famous one?

Yeah. Someone I don't remember his name, but he made like you could actually drive this Lego car.

Really?

It's it's Lego, but it's it's like a real car.

So you don't have it, but you've seen it, you mean.

Yeah, I've seen it in a video. It's the same as. It's kind of the same as that one. You can..

Which one?

It's got like the one that we had out there. The real one,

A real car.

Yeah. It's like..

Oh. So it's like..

It's like it's like a real one just made out of Lego.

So it's probably all the real stuff, but they've taken the, the panels off the car and then put Lego on the car so that you could actually drive it around.

Yeah. So.

That's probably unsafe.

It's made of. It's made of. They don't drive it more often but..

Imagine if someone crashed that car, it would just turn into a million pieces.

They do drive it, but they have to be really careful.

Yeah. No. No doubt.

No doubt. So someone's just really close to it and they crash.

Yeah, that thing was. And it smashed into him. You reckon if you crash the car.

And they're like. And they're like, oh, that's a real car.

Do you reckon they would just sit there on the side of the road after crashing it? And they would have to put all the, all the pieces back together.

Yeah. But it would take like it, it took them two years to build that.

So you'd be there for a while trying to fix the car.

You'd be there? Yeah. That guy driving it, the famous guy that built it would be driving it. And..

Good god, you would need, like, buckets and a shovel to pick up all the pieces of Lego.

But he forgets it and he puts it, he puts them in the boot and nowhere to open it.

But wouldn't the boot be smashed?

No, it's it's it's a car just made out of Lego. It's got real car things. Is just not like, imagine someone just crashed into that thing. They're actually driving. They're actually driving on real roads.

I bet. Yeah. I think what they probably did was make all of the panels and everything out of it, but they've kept the engine and all the other stuff in there. So the car still works.

Yeah, it's the real engines from a real car and all the stuff that like the window screens and the engine, they can't make that out of Lego.

So.

There's like a Lego engine sometimes..

Do you reckon that's the kind of job you want to do in the future? Would you want to do stuff with Lego somehow as work?

I want to I want to be into it for like a lot.

What would you do if you could have a job in the future? What would you do?

What, what'd you say?

If you had it. When you. When you grow up and you get a job, what do you want to do? Do you want it to be related to Lego?

I'll be in. I'll be in Lego again.

Do you want to be into Lego?

I'll be. I'll still be in Lego then, because I'm really into it. Um, I make like, um, videos on videos with it, but I've actually seen this expert in Legos. He is famous because he makes videos. He's got this friend and he's trying to build this huge Iron Man Lego um, by himself, with no instructions. Nothing.

Wow.

And he builds it all by himself. And it's done. And he's. And he's so impressed. And but there is another one of those you can get. But it's really funny because his head's all flat. And you know why? It's kind of flat? Because you get you can build a medium one and you put it inside, the heads opens up and you put the arms and legs straight and you put it in.

So there's a little Iron Man that you can make. Is that also made out of Lego?

Yes.

And then you can put it inside the big one.

You put it inside.

Wow.

And there's even one that you can even put a one that big inside.

Mhm. Wow. That's crazy. I think you're going to be into Lego for a while, aren't you? You should have found the thing that you love. Tell me about Christmas. What is Christmas?

Um.

I know that's a bit esoteric.

The end of the year. It's the end of the year.

Why do you like Christmas?

Um. Celebrating.

Celebrating.

I get to go to Nana's, and this year, something new is happening. I get to go to Nana. Then my Nana went to your grandpa.

Yeah. They're still alive, living in their own house. Grandpa Ron is 95.

Is, Nana Bev is 92.

Mhm.

And she's. Grandpa Ron is almost up to 100.

I know he's pretty crazy.

He's got 11 more ages in the 11th age. He's 100.

The 11th age?

Yeah I've been counting.

Oh he's got five more years and he'll be 100.

Yeah.

So you. You mean you'll be 11 when you turn 11? In five more years, he'll be 100. Is that what you mean?

Yes.

That'd be pretty crazy, right? What do you think it's like to be 100?

Um, no. People do stuff for you because it's too hard and you can't walk. I've actually seen.

Grandpa Ron can still walk.

I've seen a video with this lady. She's old. She's 99. Turns 100. And on that day, this is the. After the day that she turns 100, she just dies. Nothing. She dies. Just dies when she dies. Yeah, that's in the video.

I showed you that video!

Mama. I decided to watch it.

I think I'm gonna have to have a talk to Mama. So this old lady was 99 turned 100 and then just died the next day.

I think, I think.

Do you think you'd want to be 100 one day?

I think. Don't know, I do not want to die.

I don't think anyone wants to die, man.

I wish someone. I wish there was like, um, a wish. So when you're a baby, you. Your parents take you there because they've already been done it.

Take you where?

That's like, I'm just. I'm just making happy. This is this. Which with the person that can make you stay alive forever.

What do you think, though? Don't you think that if you stayed alive forever, it would get boring?

Um.

Because you would do everything. You would see everything, you would experience everything. You would just keep getting older and older and older.

Yeah, that's what I mean. I just want to do that. You could. You could get infinity years old.

Don't you reckon, though? That'd get boring after a while.

No. I don't think so.

You just keep doing Lego, would you?

Yeah. I saw this video with a guy. That is how I seen a world record of this. And this guy. His house is full of Lego. Just Lego in. So I was.

Don't point at my guitars.

If I was, if I was him.

Mhm.

Um, this room would be filled with Legos.

Not guitars.

My room would be filled with Lego. The whole house would just be Legos.

Would you build the house out of Lego?

Hang em on the ceiling, Lego. I wish I could do that when I'm older. Probably.

Yeah, well.

And you come to my house for the first time in and you're like, why's all this Lego in here?

You got heaps. We got a whole bunch recently, didn't we? Lego. Has that been fun? Do you enjoy that as much as you? Do you enjoy getting boxes from, say, Kmart or Target? Because what we did was we ended up finding a deal online where some people were selling a whole bunch of Lego. Like, I don't know, it was like four big containers of it from like 30 different things. And we bought it all for 200 bucks. Yeah,

We bought it all.

Do you prefer that having all that Lego that you can then build into different things? Or do you like having brand new boxes?

Three. I've only got three boxes and I'm saving all the others for Christmas.

Yeah.

That's what I want to do.

So you didn't mind getting them second hand?

Those ones have heaps. I don't need any more right now.

You got, yeah. There's a lot in there, right?

I finished my spaceship, and I finished the spaceship into my room on the bed.

Yeah, there's thousands and thousands of pieces of Lego that we got from them. It was pretty cool. So what's the most exciting part about Christmas? What are you looking forward to? It's only a couple of weeks away.

There's only ten more days.

Yeah. Yep. The 15th today. Mhm. Jeez, you are counting down. You've been telling me that for the last month. You've been like, There's this many days until Christmas.

So it started from 25 and then we got all the way down.

Mhm. Mhm. And so what are you looking forward to?

Mum just told me the number of how many days in a year. That's a lot of days.

How many?

I don't remember, but it was something in 60. 65?

365. 365. You got it.

It's a lot of days.

It is. So every time 365 or sometimes there's what's called a leap year, which is 364 days. Every time that amount passes, you turn another year old.

I know. I'm still waiting. I'm still waiting for that. I'm already six. I'm turning seven.

Are you excited to be seven years old?

And you know what, Alex? You know what? Alex and Harry are..

Your friends at school?

You're almost six seven. Alex and me are almost six. All the boys in the class and all the girls are six. They turn seven, and then they've already been. And then they're. And when they're eight, they're past 6 7.

Why's six seven so funny?

Um. No.

You don't know.

I don't think it's funny. Alex and Harry think it's funny.

It is this weird cultural thing that's going on at the moment where everyone keeps saying it.

They told me that it's in a song.

It is.

It's in the song.

Yeah. So what are you going to do for Christmas? Tell us what you're going to do this year for Christmas.

We're going to go to Nana and Grandparents and celebrate.

And what do you think's going to happen on the day?

There's one thing that the elf at school, he wrote, who wants to play 6 7 on the whiteboard outside in the Prep area and everyone was shouting.

Mhm. So what are we going to do on Christmas Day? What do you think's going to happen. How do you think it'll work.

So first I think I know what Joey's gonna do.

What.

I know what I'm gonna wake up straight away. Mom's gonna be like, I know what mom's gonna be like. She's always like this. Ten more minutes.

Oh. To sleep? Yeah. Yes. Because you guys get up so early, you get up at, like, 6 a.m.

And. And then we're like, It's Christmas, it's Christmas. We want to open up the presents! Later.

So you'll come running out of the bedroom, and you'll want to open up the presents early in the morning.

Yeah. Joey's probably. I think I know what she's going to do without even asking mum or anyone. She's rushing out there. Oh..

You reckon she's..

You going to wake up. You find out. Wrappers on the floor, all from Joey.

What if she just opens up everyone's presents?

And mine? I want to open on my own.

Oh, so we'll do that in the morning, and then I think we'll probably drive up. Yeah.

Have hot chocolate. And after that, we'll.

Drive to Nana Bev and Grandpa Ron's.

No, we won't do that. We've got some new clothes for the weather. And then we'll go after we change.

Okay. So you're going to change into a little outfit. What outfit did you get for Christmas Day?

Mine. I got, um, the Grinch.

Why did you get the Grinch?

Joey? Because I'm a Grinch. And I didn't want the one that Joey got because.

What did Joey get?

She got a red one with the Grinch and, um, a weird looking dog.

So you both got the Grinch?

Yeah. Um, but mine only had the, um, Grinch on it.

You know, the deal with the Grinch?

Joey had Grinch and dog and Grinch and dog and Grinch dog.

You know he hates Christmas, right?

Yeah, I know.

That's why it's called The Grinch, right? He hates it.

Grinch.

Yeah.

Grinch.

I guess he's, he's the grumpy. He's the grumpy Grinch. He hates it. Yeah. He's like mhm. I mean I don't know I guess it's his name. I'll have to look it up. Probably has another meaning but. All right. And then when we get to Nana Bev and Grandpa Ron's, what do you reckon we'll do for the day.

Well, I'm probably.

You've never been, so.

Oh yes I have!

No, no, no for Christmas.

Oh, yeah. I've never been for Christmas.

Cause I used to do this when I was a kid. I used to go there every year with Mum and Dad. So Mum and Dad would take Annie and me, my sister and I.

Am I going to get to be there every year now?

This is probably the last time they ever do it. This is why we wanted to take you, because they're getting pretty old now. They're probably going to go to move into a, um, old person's home.

Eh, but can we still go to their home?

No, they're probably going to end up selling it. If they move out of that house.

No, not that house.

Oh, you can still visit them! Yeah, yeah, 100%.

Um, probably. I'm gonna ask Mama when we go there. Maybe I'll bring my 65 bucks and I'm gonna buy a Lego on the way so I can build it with. I can build it with one. That boy that likes Lego.

Charlie. Your cousin? Yeah, well, you might have to organise that ahead of time, so we don't have to rush because you don't want to buy it on the day.

Because it's really it's going to be a really big one.

It's going to be a busy day, too.

So maybe I won't do that.

You could do that. It's up to you. You could buy something small as well and take it with Charlie. I'm sure he'd love to do that. Your cousin's the one who got you hooked on Lego, isn't he? Because he had when he went to his house, he had a big room with it.

He's the one who made me go on Lego.

Tell us that story. What happened? How did you get onto Lego through him?

Because I wanted to build this Batman Lego. That's the one that I. That was, um, the biggest one that I ever got then, and I built it with him. But now I've got this Ninjago one that's even bigger than that Batman one.

Mhm. Um, but you went to his house.

And there's something really weird. It's something really weird happening because he's got more than me.

But he's older than you.

He's. He's older than me. He's a teenager. He's got he's got more than me. But he doesn't have any like big ones. He doesn't have any that are bigger than mine.

I don't know, maybe he likes the smaller ones. But you went to his house, right? Remember? And you went into his bedroom and you saw his Lego everywhere. And that was when you got hooked on it, huh?

Yeah. I want to clean up. And even Joey. Stuffing is going down. Gone. My bed's going to be in a different room. Probably in the room that Joey's bed is going to be in. So she can be near me because she wants to. And then I can just put all my shelves of Legos on my bed.

Mhm.

And I have like heaps, heaps. Got a bunk bed and he puts he's still collecting. He's got them all on the top of the bed and he's gonna put some. I'm starting with the bottom my bed. And while I'm waiting I'm probably I want to go into the garage and get the top so I can I can put even more on there.

You're just gonna fill the house with Lego, aren't you, buddy?

I'm, not the house. I'll do that. I'll do that when I'm older.

Just the garage. Just your bedroom.

The garage will be way better. That's way more.

There's more space in there.

Yeah.

All right. And so. What's the. What gift do you hope you get for Christmas this year? What would be like the best possible gift that you can imagine getting? If you could get anything from mum and dad, from Santa, from Nana and grandpa, from anyone, what would it be? That would be like the best thing ever. And why?

Oh my love. Not that I'm thinking about Legos, because I really.

Of course you are.

I'm not into that. That doesn't do anything. I know it.

What?

So, like, um, a big giant Star Wars Lego with a stand.

Um, they come with a stand, do they?

Yeah. Some of them come with a stand, but they're really expensive.

They are. They're about $1,000.

Yeah, that's what I want for Christmas.

Good God, that's a lot of money, Noah.

Santa can actually make that!

I don't know, I have a feeling that there may not be enough space in Santa's sack for, um, Lego boxes that big. Oh, gosh.

So just buy us a big one. Or just credit. Okay, I have an idea. Carry it in his hand. Easy.

All right. Maybe we finish up the episode there. What do you reckon? Good idea?

Should we do another one after?

What do you want to talk about after?

Um. More things.

You just like talking, huh?

Um, yeah. But are these podcasts going to be on my. On the thing that all the podcasts on your computer.

Yeah, I'll publish them. People love listening to you, mate.

I wanna have a look.

Not straight away. It's going to take a little while to go out. It won't be out today.

Yeah.

Give me some time. All right. Are you gonna say ciao?

Bye!

See you guys!